I won’t lie to you, I haven’t watched a Cubs game in over three weeks. I’m not sure if that makes me a bad fan or a smart fan. Either way it is nice to see the team still have some fight in them.

The Cardinals are in the middle of another late playoff push and the Cubs have done their best to play spoiler this weekend. Unfortunately they came up short on Saturday afternoon, but only because of the mystical abilities Carlos Marmol possesses to lose games.

Yes it has been weeks since I turned on my PS3 and flipped to the MLB.TV screen, but it’s nice to see that Marmol and Shawn Camp are doing their “thing.” Whatever that “thing” is. I comically find some comfort that the Cubbies are still the Cubbies.

Anyways enough about my rambling nonsense, let’s get to the game.

6th Inning Web Gems

Not sure what was going on in the sixth, but what a fun collection of defensive plays. Darwin Barney got the party started with an impressive over-his-shoulder grab while running out into right-center field. There was a runner on third base, but he wasn’t able to tag up because Barney made an awkward, body-contorting throw back into the infield quickly.

The run was saved once again only a batter later when John Jay lined a screamer up the middle of the diamond, only to have Starlin Castro get a great jump on the play and make the snag. These are the kinds of plays that draw me back to baseball; even during football season.

Following David DeJesus’ homer to right, Barney was robbed by David Descalso on a line drive towards center. Descalso made one of the more impressive plays I’ve seen this year, although take that observation with a grain of salt.

Wood is Good

It’s nice to see how far he’s come along this season. I know it still isn’t perfect, but the returns on Travis Wood have been positive this season. Wood started off behind the hard-luck Volstad in AAA due to a bad spring. The record doesn’t spell it all out if you just looked at that, but Wood would be a lot closer to a .500 record if he was on a contending team. Again not an awe-inspiring conclusion, but just something I’ve found as a positive heading into 2013.

For the most part the guy can get limit damage to a minimum. Case in point was the second inning as it could have been MUCH, MUCH worse. I can live with Wood as a three or four guy on a bad Cubs team with him being a possible fifth man once the team starts to compete again. Whenever that is.

Marmol’d and Camp’d

We’ve talked about this ad nausea in 2012. There is nothing left to talk about regarding the pathetic nature of our bullpen. Then why would you make an entire bullet point about it Josh?

Great question. The fake reason was to try to get the use of Marmol and Camp’s names as adjectives to catch on. Not sure it is working. The real reason is that as we wind down this forgettable “rebuilding” year, we need to archive truly how terrible the bullpen really was. Just trying to do my part in that.

Sidenote: This was the first I got to see Jaye Chapman since he was called up. Obviously he didn’t pitch well today, but just taking a gander at his innings since he came up he looks pitch-able. I’d say that’s a step up for the bullpen; not all of those guys are pitch-able. (No pitch-able isn’t a word)

Fall

This segment is aptly named. The first thing I noticed when going back and watching the game was how many people were wearing sweatshirts. As I mentioned previously I moved to Mississippi from Connecticut in July and haven’t seen any resemblance of a fall season here at the end of September. I actually forgot that people still wearing coats and beanies.

I work for a small NAIA school’s athletic department and was able to do football play-by-play for the first time in my life. As difficult awesome as that was, it was 90 degrees in the booth. I envy you sweatshirt-toting Cubs fans. I envy you and your seasons.

I was in Oxford in January, and it was cold, rainy, and windy like it was today in Chicago (minus the rain). I want 90 and sun all year round, and I want to go back to Florida

Doc Raker

I think September is the best month for weather in Chicago, sunshine but not to hot. A fastball down and in on a lefty, maybe not the best location. One thing is for sure, Marmol has been more effective since throwing more fastballs, it has set up his slider much better. Someone is going to hit you every now and then.